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About The Choteau Montanan (Choteau, Mont.) 1913-1925 | View This Issue
The Choteau Montanan (Choteau, Mont.), 11 April 1924, located at <http://montananewspapers.org/lccn/sn85053031/1924-04-11/ed-1/seq-2/>, image provided by MONTANA NEWSPAPERS, Montana Historical Society, Helena, Montana.
A m e r i c a n I m m u r i In 1857 . ‘ H e was the guide and companion of Gen. Grenville M. Dodge In his Union Pacific surreys and In his Indian campaigns of 1805-6. These are some of the things James Brldger did. They do not rest on tradition, but are recorded in standard contemporaneous his torical works. Here is a bit from General Dodge's description of Brldger: Brldger was a very companion able man. In person he was over six feet % tall, spare, straight as an arrow, agile, rawboned' and of pow erful frame, eyes gray, hair brown and abundant even In his old age. with expression mild, and agreeable. He was hospitable and generous and was always trusted and respected. Hera are two other contemporary expressions of opinion about Brldg e r : A born topographer and cartog rapher.— Capt. W. F. Reynolds. U S. A., topographical engineer. J 3 r i c i g < s r } 2 & o m z u z O/cL G r r ' & o i y / ^ & y . \ m i_ P __ - V -- h H e C o r r e c t ly P o r t r a y e d I n \ T h e C o v e r e d W a ^ o n ” ? By JOHN DICKINSON SHERMAN COMPEER—AND RIVAL O “OLD JIM\ BRIDGER, “Teller ol Tall Yarns— ” They’re clusslcs still, these lattei days— Sir George Gore, straight-faced, r^ad “ Munchausen’s Tales\ By Rocky Mountain campfire's blaze. Sale \Old Jim,\ scornful: “ Passel o’ big lies I That critter’s dogoned bad mistook. An’ say i Some things I seen myself w’d read More hii’alutin’ In a book— Yellerstun cliff o’ rock jc* kin see thru; Hull herd o’ pickled buffler in Salt Lake; Gran’ Canyon, where the moon is always full. Wake-up Gorge— echo comes buck nex’ mornln’ ; Boilin’ water runnin’ from ice-coi’ spring, An’ Alum Crick, what shrunk my pony’s feet— They’d make u man sit up and look.’’ You may know much or little or nothing about James Bridgor. You probably know considerable, if you belong— Out where the world Is In tho making, Where fewer hearts with despair are aching— 1 hat’s whore tho West begins— Where there’s more of singing and less of sighing, Wl.ere there’s more of giving and less of buying And a man make’s friends vHthout half trying— That’s where the West begins. For that Is the West of today, ns Arthur Chap man has sung it, and there Bridger’s name, though he has been dead these forty years and more, is Btlil one to conjure with. If you are a student of Americana you know that the history of the United States cannot he told without the storj of Brldger and Ids fellow explorers, trappers and fur-traders west of the Mississippi. If you are a “movie fan,” you may have seen “The Covered Wngon,” and know Brldger us pre sented in thnt motion picture production. The Immediate motive of this article is the fact that Mrs. Virginia Brldger Ilalm of Kansas City, Kans., Bridger’s only survhing child, lias brought suit for damages of a million dollars against “The Covered Wagon” heenuse of Its presentation of her father. According to the* petition In tho suit. It is reported, the motion picture production de picts Brldger as a heavy drinker and a person wiio ofren became intoxicated and ns living with two squaws. Mrs. Ilalm charges that her parentage Is brought Into question; that her name Is dis graced. and thnt she suffers great humiliation be cause her father Is shown In several carousals. She assorts that her father was an upright, honor able man, who was never known to drink to excess. The purpose of this article Is not to try out of court the case of Mrs. Hahn against the Famous Pluyers-Lasky corporation and the I’aramount Pic tures corporation. Its sole purpose Is to show thnt James Brldger, drunken or sober. Is un Amerloun Immortal—and why. “ I’he Covered Wagon\ is a picture based upon a historical novel of tho same name by the late Emerson Hough, an American novelist and nature- writer. It depicts the progress of n caravan over the famous “Oregon Trail.” As a whole It Is a powerful and louchlng picture of the times— In Portland the people In the theater rose In response to some of Its most stirring scenes The Interpretation of James Brldger presented o it the screen by Ttjlly Marshall is disconcerting and perplexing, to say the least, to horh hero-wor shiper and student of history. He drifts in from tiie desert, shabby, uncouth, rather maudlin and quite grotesque, with a predilection for hard liq uor and squaws. His produest uehhnement seems to he symbolized In his ability to shoot a tin cup of liquor from the head of a boon companion after a drinking-bout James Bridger and his times must he seen In perspective. The hlstorj of the United States west of the Mississippi begins with the Spanish explorations of (he Sixteenth century in the South west. The French of the Seventeenth centurv at tempted to build un inland empire along the St. Lawrence, Great Lakes, Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. They lost the St. Lawrence region to the British. The Revolution fixed the western boundary of the American Colonies nt the Missis sippi. The French, under Napoleon, staged n second Efiampt at empire-building, this time from New Orleans and west of the Mississippi. Napoleon, forced to choose between war and colonization, elected to fight. So be sold to the United States for 515,000,000 the territory between the Missis sippi and the Rockies. He planned to “kill two birds with fin e stone;’’ get the sinews of war and “plant a thorn In the English breast.” . So, at the beginning of the Nineteenth century. J B r l d t f e r 3 . a S h o w n i n \ T h o - C o y & j 'e d Texas, the Southwest and California were Span- ish. Cunada was British. The Pacific Northwest was “No Man’s Land,” with Russian, Spaniard. Britain and American all striving for a foothold. The \Undiscovered Country\ of the Louisiana Pur chase was American. Tiie French tri-color came down and Old Glory wont up over St. Louis March 10, 1804. With a cheer, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, waiting Impatiently on the American side of the Missis sippi, sot forth on its historic exploration to see what tiie United States had got for Its tlfteen mil lions. It wintered (IS05-G) at the mouth of Hie Columbia and arrived at St. Louis late in 1806, returning as from the dead. The nutlon rejoiced. And thereupon, the Ameri can people, with the realization that tiie Louisiana Purchase was In truth a “Delectable Lund.\ thrilled with their first full vision of their destiny and resolutely set their faces toward the setting sun. thenceforth to he content witii nothing less than a clean sweep from ocean to ocean. Lewis and Clark reported the Missouri to be alive with beaver clear to its headwaters in the Rockies. And thereupon began the Age of the Trupper which was to lust for forty years. The trapper, us blind in his way us the Span iard who suw nothing unless gold, saw nothing hut fur—and trod on the gold that In the next stage of development was to cull out the prospector, to be followed in turn by the settler and civilization. It was the American free trapper who first spied out the land and established the practicable routes of travel. By I860 the trapper knew the West; any geographical discovery ulter that was a dis covery only in the sense thut it resulted in pub licity. The return of Lewis and Clark in 1S0G spurred American fur-traders to activity. Manuel Lisa of St. Louis—adroit and masterful “ Father Manuel— ” made a successful trip up the Missouri and In 1808 organized the Missouri Fur Company. John Jacob Astor organized in New York tiie same year tiie American Fur company. Astor’s plnns were of world-wide scope— tiie founding of Astoria on the Coluinblu; the shipping of furs to Chinn; return cargoes of tea and silk to New York. Lisa died in his prime in 1820; the Missouri Fur Company lasted until 1830, when It was crowded out by the Rocky Mountain Fur Company and the American Fur Cotnpuny. James Bridger, born In 1S04 In Virginia, ap pears upon the scene In 1822, when the Rocky Mountain Fur Company was organized In St. Louis by Gen. William H. Ashley. A youth of eighteen, he was one of Ashley’s profit-sharing associates, with Smith,-Jackson, Provost, the Sublettes. Fitz patrick, Campbell and Beckwourtli—ull of whom became famous. Bridger gullied his title of respect—“Old Jim\— before he was thirty. In twelve months of 1S23-4. he made a circuit of 5.000 miles, extending from the Mississippi to California and from Kansas to Montana. He discovered South Pass through the Wyoming Rockies in 1823 und Great Salt Lake in 1824. He rediscovered, about 1830, the Yellow stone, first seen by John Colter in 1807 and laughed ofT the map ns “ Colter’s Hell.\ It was Ashley who superseded the stationary trailing post by the caravan and annual rendez vous. By* 1830 Brldger was a directing partner. In 1832 lie und Milton Souhiette and Fitzpatrick bought out Ashley. In 1S84 Astor got out of the American Fur Company because the French bud invented a way to substitute silk for heaver In top-hats. Ills successors bought out Bridger and Ids associates in the Rocky Mountuln Fur Com pany. In 1843 Bridger established ’Fort Bridger in the valley of the Black Fork of the Green river in Utah. Fort Brldger was not an Indian trading- post, but was a house of accommodation for set tlers pressing west over the Oregon Trail. It was the first of its kind and marked tho passing of the trapper and the beginning of a new era. Brldger opened the Overland Route by Bridger*» Pass to Salt Lake. He guided Gen. Albert Sidney Johnson’s punitive expedition against the Mormons fkr I mumi I m I r K c h é w o x e . With a buffalo skin and a piece of charcoal, he will map out any portion of this Immense region, ami delineate mountains, streams and the circular valleys called “holes’ with wonderful ( accuracy.— Caut. J. W. Gunnison, U. S. A. Brldger sold out nt Ft. Bridger in 1850 and moved to Jackson County, Missouri. He bought a big farm and built a large residence. Ile had an Indian wife and several children. I-le kept open house. Virginia Bridger was married there In ISG4 to Capt. Albert Wnchsmun. The wedding was a big social event Captain Wachsmnn died In 1883 and in 1892 she married Frank Hahn. Bridger died In 1SS1 and his grave in Washington Park cemetery, Kansas City, is marked by a mon ument erected and Inscribed by Oenernl Dodge. According to General Dodge, Brldger had three Indian wives— one at a time and all regular— n Flathead, a Ute and a Snake. Mrs. Hnhn Is the daughter of the second wife, the Ute, to whom Brldger was married nt Ft. Brldger by the famous Jesuit, Father de Sraet Bridger’s career rends like n fantastic romance and the most fantastic tiling about it is this; “ Old Jim” Brldger is an American Immortal be cause of his fantastic “Tall Yarns.” Tiie West may forget hini as “ the uncrowned king of all the Rocky Mountain scouts, guides, trailers, In dian fighters, trappers and plainsmen from the Thirties to the Seventies.\ But ills \Tall Yarns’’ will always be told In the West to each succeeding generation. “Old .Tim\ led a dual life. He was apparently equally devoted to fact and fiction. When he told fact lie was exact. Ills spoken work had tiie confidence of white man nnd Indian alike. Ills maps were lnvnrinbly correct. When he swapped yarns with old cronies or could get the ear of a tenderfoot, bis adventures were limited only bv the powers of ills imagination. And he never played a bigger Joke on n greenhorn than he played on himself, for when he told of the won ders of the Yellowstone an admiring public burst Into laughter over “ another of ’Old .Tim’s’ tall yunis” —nnd refused to believe n single word So Jim, making the best of n bad job, concoct ed the “ obsidian cliff” yarn nnd added it ns the crowning wonder of the Yellowstone. It is prob ably the most popular of all ids “Tail Yarns’’ nnd is too well known to need telling here. The “herd o’ ph-kled bufiler\ was snowed In by a seventy-day storiii and frozen solid. In the spring Jim rolled the carcasses Into Salt Lake nnd supplied the Utes with meat for two years. The Ice-cold spring was ldgh up nnd the water ran down-hill so fast thnt :t was boiling hy the time It reached the foot’ of the mountuln. The alum creek shrunk up his ponj’s feet to points, so thut the unlmal stuck when he hit the trail. Unn Imagination conceive of a situation more unique than Sir George Gore, with a perfectly straight face, reading \Munchausen’s Tales” to Jim Bridger beside a Rocky Mountain campfire? Yet the incident is strictly true, ns is Jim’s com- meit and rival boast. Sir George was u noted Irish sportsman who hunted for two years in the Rockies, 1854-5, with Jim for guide, philosopher nnd friend. The Gore range Is named for him. He traveled with a retinue of fifty and outfit to correspond. He dined in state late» in the evening and it was his practice after dinner to read to Jim from the great books of the world. Imagine bis Inward delight In rending from the biggest liar of all print to the champion liar of the WeBtl 4 Will Your Family Be Happy This Spring? Suppose you have defi nitely decided to buy a Chevrolet this Spring. That does not necessari ly mean that you are going to get it. Anyone posted on con ditions in the automo bile business w ill tell ycu that thousands of families are going to be unable to get cars this Spring. That has been true almost every Spring for years, but the short age in April, M a y and June, this year, is going to be more serious than ever before. The only way to be sure' of a Chevrolet this Spring is to order it NOW. If you do not w a n t to pay for it in full at this tim e , any C h e v r o le t dealer will arrange terms to suit your convenienc e, so you ca npayasyouride. You will be surprised to learn how easy it is to pay for a Chevrolet. W ill Chevrolet Advance Prices? Ten makes of automobiles have already advanced in price. In spite o f increased costs of ma terials, the Chevrolet price is still the same. How long—we cannot gu a rantee. T o make sure of your Chevrolet at pres ent low prices B U Y N O W ! Chevrolet M otor Company, Detroit, M ich. ‘Division o f General Motors Corporation Pries.s f . o . b. Flint, Michigan Supcrlor Roadster « $490 Superior Sedan - - - $795 Superior Tourlng - - - 495 Superior Commercial Châssis 395 Superior Utllity Coupe - 640 Superior I.lght Dellvery - 495 Superior 4-Passenger Coupe - 725 Utllity Express Truck Chasals 550 Fisher Bodies on Closed Mode ls Many a man's veracity is unim peachable until he acquires the fish ing habit. Beans can be cooked In fifty-seven disagreeable ways gs well as a few agreeable ones. should be made artistic, sanitary and livable. T h e s e walls should be Alabastined in the latest, up-to-the-m inute nature c o lor tints. E a ch room should reflect y o u r o w n in d iv i d u a lity and th e treatm e n t throughout be a com p lete perfect harm o n y in colors. T h e walls of the old home, whether mansion or cottage, can be made just as attractive, just as sanitary, through the intelligent use of Instead of kalsomine or wallpaper It is absolutely necessary if you expect Alabastine results that you ask for and secure Alabastine. Avoid kalsomines under various names and insist on the package with the cross and circle printed in red. That is the only way to be sure you are getting the genuine Alabastine. Alabastine is easy to m ix and apply, lasting in its results, and absolutely sanitary. Alabastine is a dry powder, put up in five-pound packages, white and beau tiful tints, ready to mix and use by the addition of cold water, and with full direc tions on each package. Every package o f genuine Alabastine has cross and circle printed in red. Better write us for hand-made color de signs and special suggestions. Give us your decor ative problems and let us help you work them out. Alabastine Company 1655 Grnndvlllc A v e . Grand Rapids, M ich. o r truck, Ford, delivery wagon or for luxurious limousine there is a ALL-TREAD with its heavy, deep-scored tread protecting the side walls and insuring the utmost tracdon in sand or mud or ruts o f country roads, and wet, danger ous, slippery city pavements or boulevards.' A difierent kind of a tire, built by a master, with the difference in favor of the user. W rite for par ticulars and prices. M ail orders filled promptly. J o h n D . M c T a v is h C o . Studebaker Distributors, Billings, Montana
